Best Glamping near Apalachicola National Forest

Lovely area, bring snorkels, kayaks, and bikes. Lots of wildlife. Really neat shorelines with sand and very tall trees, driftwood, dunes. Make sure to explore both sides of the peninsula. About 1.5 hours from Apalachicola National Forest, lots more to do in the area. Watch the sunset! Camp sites have nice privacy, some areas are wooded for shade. Some of my group stayed in the cabins and they were also nice (though sparcely stocked, call to know exactly what to expect). Very clean, great services as described.

Enjoy the beach, snorkel in the bay, rent a kayak at the marina, go hiking, go fishing. One of the BEST Florida parks!

We’ve been coming to Indian Pass and the area for twenty years and although there has been some areas of overdevelopment, this campground still has the old Florida feel. Friendly staff, beautiful sites right on the water, stunning sunsets and wilderness all around you!

Florida State Parks did a great job redoing this campground after Hurricane Michael in 2018. Brand new facilities, excellent camping pads, and good beach access. You can still see some of the hurricane damage which is a testament to the severity of Michael in the area.

This place is great! A beach within a short walk, palm trees,clean bathrooms, wildlife, sunsets………… And the Florida State Parks system is contactable and friendly!!! There are hike in spots for those with tents who want to. There are very nice screened in cabins available.

This is another example of why I just love our state parks here in Florida. Campground is set up on the river. Great small boat and kayak access right at the campgrounds. Lots of great trails for hiking. Sites are a little closer then most SPs I have visited but for the price of this one at 16 a night we will totally be back.

Torreya State Park is tucked away by itself and has a smaller campground at only 29 sites, and it's part of what makes it a great place to get away. 

Small and remote means peace and quiet. The sites aren't very private, but there aren't many and folks seem to keep to themselves. 

The bathrooms are small but decent and well-maintained, and there are 30-amp electric and water on each site. Another nice feature is a very clean laundry area. It only has one washer and dryer, but the campground is small enough that doesn't seem to be a problem. 

Nearby trails, some accessible right from the campground, also make this a good spot to use as a basecamp if you want to get out and explore some of Florida's natural beauty. Also, Gregory House is an 1850s plantation home that you can visit for a guided tour and is within walking distance of the campground.

There is currently no camping allowed at the campground due to the significant damage caused by hurricane Michael in October 2018. The park is open for day use of the beach, swimming and paddle boating. I urge everyone to please stop by to show continued interest in this beautiful area. In time this will once again be as spectacular as ever and hopefully a decision will be made on reopening the campgrounds. This was one of those places that once visited you will never forget. I’m providing a few pictures from my last visit in 2018 before the hurricane to show what it was and what it will return to over time. 

Here’s the information currently on the Florida State Parks information page and on the Reserve America web site

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T.H. Stone Memorial St. Joseph Peninsula State Park T.H. Stone St. Joseph Memorial Peninsula State Park is recovering. The natural communities on the peninsula, such as coastal scrub, have evolved over millions of years and countless storms. Tall dunes provided extra protection. The resilient coastal ecosystems in the park are some of the best suited to rebounding after hurricanes. The south end of the park reopened in January 2019. Staff and volunteers made an incredible effort to clean up debris and make the park safe for visitors. The northern area of the park is currently closed to visitors. Natural sand infill has narrowed the channel created by Hurricane Michael’s storm surge. Across the channel, in the northern half of the park, roads, utilities and several facilities were destroyed and are not accessible. It will be some time before camping or cabins are available. The south end of the park still offers many of the experiences that make St. Joseph a great destination. Swimming, snorkeling and beach-combing are still popular activities. The concession is offering rentals of kayaks and paddle-boards, and a boat ramp provides easy access to St. Joseph Bay. The Division of Recreation and Parks' Office of Park Planning continues to assess the park’s condition. The Office of Park Planning shares opportunities for public comment on their webpage. For the most current information on available amenities and conditions, visit St. Joseph Memorial Peninsula State Park or call 850-227-1327. Please remember, for your safety and to protect the park’s ecosystems, please obey all posted signage. ______________________________________________________________________________

We camped at Pidcock Road Campsite #49 during the 2020 Leonid meteor shower.  Nice place for dogs (req'd on leash) as no other campsites nearby.  Very quiet, no water or electricity.  Don't trust google map for road directions, you have to approach from the east or north.  Dirt roads could be an issue if wet and for larger RV-type set-ups.  Marginal cell phone coverage (AT&T).

If you forget to reserve, there’s a sign reminding you to call. 2 sites on the cash creek boat launch, both clean and scenic. The boat ramp gets some use (4 kayaks total for the day) but otherwise it’s very quiet. Bathroom available because of the boat ramp. It says tent only but the sites are big enough to back in a 20 foot trailer.

We have a 36 ft Class A with a Cherokee Trailhawk tow and stayed in site 64 for 4 days in mid April. This is a relatively small CG, with~15 wooded sites that are reasonably spaced. The CG is very clean, recently renovated, well maintained and relatively inexpensive. Most of the sites are water only, but there are a handful of them that also have 50A service. The roads and sites are sandy gravel. Our site had a little bit of slope side to side, but not too bad. There aren’t any hiking trails leading from the CG, but there are others in the area. There are no lights in the CG except the two on the bathhouse, which are unnecessarily as bright as the Sun

AT&T coverage was pretty dismal, with 1 bar of 5GE service and speeds only up to 0.9 MB/s. The CG has a lot of trees, but the pines only have top foliage, so access and coverage for DISH and Starlink was really good. Starlink was able to get speeds up to 20 MB/s with few if any dropouts. No CG WiFi.

Grand Seclusion, quiet land. creek separating some sites.

As the title states. At midnight on our second night at 50 Rake Creek, two separate vehicles raced right past our tent and parked down by the water access. When told that it was a reserved private campsite that I paid for, they became aggressive and argued that it was not private. Both vehicles did three point turns, narrowly missing our tent and shining headlights in our faces and spun tires out of the campsite. We felt unsafe and like they might return to retaliate so we had no choice but to break camp at midnight and make a 5 hour drive through the night back home. 

During the day, multiple vehicles miss the small sign that says "primitive campsite" at the dirt road entrance and drive down the road looking to fish or explore. Most of them quickly turn around when they realize its a campsite. 

I have emailed the state forest asking for better signage indicating that it is a paid for, reserved campsite or a gate with a code. If it weren't for the music blaring, tire spinning, aggressive individuals who argued that it was not private when I asked them to leave, I would not be making such a fuss about it. It seems that we campers with a reservation busted up their usual backroad drinking spot. 

Lovely campsite that we had decided was the best place we had ever camped with a short 15 min drive to St. George Island until we were essentially run off in the middle of the night.

Apríl 6, 2021 Site:49 Pidock Rd. Remote, secluded, primitive camping Use GPS coordinants but still very Difficult to find w/o assistance from Park Service Office about two miles north of access road. Very pretty site is off a woods road on a river with wetland on two other sides

I have two dogs so worried about gators which are no doubt here.

Too bad that thoughtless,idiot campers left fair amount of used toilet paper and empty cans and bottles a few feet away from the picnic table. Not putting up with that. Booked three nights, stayed one.

There are 3 separate High Bluff Primitive campsites, one at Dry Bridge, one at Rake Creek and one at Pidcock Road.  Each spot is so far away from each other that you feel completely secluded, which is nice.  We stayed at Pidcock Rd.  Even though nobody was around we still kept the dogs on leash because the spot is surrounded by water on 3 sides, and we didn't want to risk any alligator attacks.

Site wasn't totally clean but definitely not the worst we've seen.  There is a fire ring, picnic table, and grill.  No toilet or garbage facilities so please pack out your waste.

Road in was bumpy with some huge pits but easily navigable even in our 26ft class c, just watch the road and take it slow.  There was no cell service on the roads once we entered the dense forest but the spot itself was cleared of trees enough that we got service on ATT and Verizon.

We followed the step by step directions that were in the confirmation email and not google maps' directions and we had no problems.

Site was $9/night plus tax and fees which brought it to $16.79 for the one night.

Easy to navigate, super clean and well maintained. The view is spectacular. Bathrooms are laid out super nice, clean and comfortable.

Nice little CG on the bay with a good number of direct bayfront sites. Some with pine trees for shade. Clean bathrooms. Swimming pool. Small market/ general store within walking distance.

Visited new years eve weekend and the campground was relatively quiet. The vault toilet was well stocked with toilet paper and kept clean, but there was some trash around the campground. The dock on the lake is nice and there were several people fishing. Good location for hunting the surrounding WMAs. The 3 star review is primarily due to the camping spots marked in cross ties are narrow and some spots are difficult to get a larger camper in. I would visit again.

Was able to reserve this spot day of as I was heading into Tallahassee.

Reminded me of campsites in my western mountains and was nice to camp on a soft bed of leaves and pine needles.

Caught a beautiful sunset over the lake and saw a massive gator hanging out by the fishing pier.

The gator was back in the morning as I was enjoying my cup of coffee out on the pier!

Sites were simple and no utilities exist here. There is a pit toilet though!